The Killers - The Man

We all remember where we were when we first heard The Killers. Moving back through the countless festival seizing main stage highlights, the crowning celebration that was Wembley Stadium and the instant ear worms that have grown to become not just singalong classics but touch points in our own lives - it’s a story that needs telling over and over. Las Vegas kids raised on British new wave and classic pop, writing songs in their bedrooms and using wardrobes as recording booths before going off to play at the dodgy neon-tinted bars on the strip that evening. The Killers are a band born in glamour, and over four chart-slaying albums they’ve locked into a groove that few can rival - but when you’ve played every stage there is and captured every dazzling height it poses one very big question. Where do you go from there?

The answer? Embrace it. Digest it. Soak it in. Become ‘The Man’

The Killers’ return isn’t just another stadium-ready banger, it’s a filthy strut down Sunset Boulevard - wrapped in blinding technicolour that finds Brandon Flowers morphing himself into a shaman of success and swagger. Licking like an updated thrust of David Bowie’s ‘Fame’, it’s the moment The Killers submerge themselves in the synth-laden heaven they first carved back with ‘Hot Fuss’. They’re no longer the band who knock at the door before coming in, they’re booting it in and making sure you roll out the red carpet to boot. ‘The Man’ has an ego the size of any pop superstar and with good reason - whether it’s the take-off synth opening or the funky flavours, it’s nothing short of staggering.

“I carry the crown”. “I got a household name”. These aren’t just throwaway lines - it’s a line in the sand and a statement of intent that The KiIlers aren’t waiting for pleasantries anymore. That hunger you heard screaming out of Brandon Flowers back when they were given a one song set at Live 8, that you heard commanding a nation with ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’, is now louder than it’s ever been. The Killers don’t care about being polite any longer, they’re ready to nail themselves down as the biggest band in the world. Jamie Muir

Rina Sawayama was always going to be a pop mastermind, but with her debut album out and already gaining the kind of critical acclaim that makes a career, she’s quickly becoming something far more than she ever imagined.